*Aloha Again*...September 2019...LIVE

[collybird]

Glad we’re not the only ones who have stony silences when navigating. I am the navigator but when the pilot fails to listen and gets lost then I have been known to mute.

Very cool to see a themed refillable mug!

Your Magic Bamd is so pretty but I have had to ask myself, how many Magic Bands is too many.

Oh no I am gutted to hear about the Hades Nachos as they were on my list.

Hope you're feeling better.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by onion2803

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OMG what is that? Is it the nachos? That is possibly one of the most revolting plates of food I have ever seen .. and I am not a fussy eater. It looks like raw mince and melted orange plastic.

[onion2803]

Originally Posted by Juliemack

Glad the conga sorted you out ... seriously, hope you're feeling better, nothing worse than feeling rubbish on holiday.

We'll be at MNSSHP on the 24th, it's also our only visit to a Disney park so hoping we get to do a few rides on the night.

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It’s been so quiet recently, I’m sure you’ll get on loads! We don’t queue for characters so that’s probably why we got so much done. We also waited to see the 11.15 parade and the midnight Hocus Pocus bit.

If you’re DVC you can enter from 2pm but we only found that out on the day!

Hope you have a fab night! x

Originally Posted by Disney Planning

A great update, hope you’re feeling a lot better now. What a shame about the fireworks, hope you get to see some 1 night from the Poly beach perhaps.

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Yeah we’ll watch them during one of the monorail resort stays we have coming up...if not, YouTube will do

Originally Posted by tink18

Loving following along on your trip, hope you feel better soon x

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Ah thank you - so glad we don’t have anything to do, can’t imagine feeling crappy in the parks in this heat! x

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

Great update, hope your feeling better soon.

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Originally Posted by Zellotape

Loving the report so far! Staying at AKL next year, so its been nice to see some of the food options available!

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If you’re an adventurous eater, some of the options look incredible! They still have the usual chicken nuggets and burgers too though ☺️

Originally Posted by collybird

Glad we’re not the only ones who have stony silences when navigating. I am the navigator but when the pilot fails to listen and gets lost then I have been known to mute.

Very cool to see a themed refillable mug!

Your Magic Bamd is so pretty but I have had to ask myself, how many Magic Bands is too many.

Oh no I am gutted to hear about the Hades Nachos as they were on my list.

Hope you're feeling better.

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Full mute! Except to point out the very obvious road signs that were missed and to huff loudly 😂

Oh I’ve got at least 25 magic bands now I’ve had to deactivate most of them! I haven’t ordered anymore this trip so now this is my main one...for now!

I honestly thought they were awful but Bear ate them so 🤷🏻 I much preferred the tricoloured ones on the secret menu last year! x

Originally Posted by Claudette

OMG what is that? Is it the nachos? That is possibly one of the most revolting plates of food I have ever seen .. and I am not a fussy eater. It looks like raw mince and melted orange plastic.

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It is indeed the nachos. The chicken was red, looked like tandoori chicken (it wasn’t) but tasted very strange. I’m not fussy either but these were bad. I don’t know how you can mess up nachos! x

[jools1302]

Oh no the dreaded holiday sore throat ... this gets me EVERY TIME! Really hope it clears up quickly! SO fun swimming in the rain... not so much when there's lightening though

[Wordsworth]

My husband doesn’t drink much when we’re at the parks and I can’t believe it’s never occurred to me to order cocktails for him so I can drink them

Great report so far, thanks for sharing!

[Loobylou_82]

Just caught up with your report. Hope your throat is better. Food looks good so far, except the nachos,they look pap. How many hotels are you doing ? You are very brave, i’m a heavy packer, if it says 23kilos then that’s what i’m Taking! Couldn’t cope with that many hotels with my luggage, i’d Never get to unpack properly.

[onion2803]

Hells fire, I’m now 5 days behind schedule 🙄

Nothing much has happened, I’ve definitely caught some kind of bug (starting to feel better now thankfully) and all the coughing and spluttering has put my back out so have spent a lot of time being a grouch by the pool or a grouch on the balcony or a grouch taking a nap. We’ve eaten out at least once a day so I’ll report on those and leave my tales of woe out!

Wednesday

Breakfast was a Smuckers Uncrustable for me and a granola and berry parfait for Bear - he said this was absolutely gorgeous and went back for another one so that is high praise indeed since they were priced at over $6 each and he had cereal in the room.

Lunch was out on the balcony again…this time we had sushi from Kona Island and a Stitch/Unicorn dome.

Spicy Tuna Roll & California roll

Stitch Dome (chocolate cake)

Unicorn Dome (confetti cake)

For us, this was a really good use of our QS credits. We love sushi but it’s so expensive to eat in the UK and I’d personally rather set my face on fire than eat the crap from Tesco/Boots etc. Both were amazing and tasted so fresh! The dome cakes were nice too, I think they both looked better than they tasted but the confetti one was the winner overall.

I really needed to get out of the room later on in the day and was starting to feel a little better so we decided to venture to Coronado Springs for tea - we’ve never stayed at a moderate before, having previously rented DVC points to stay onsite so it was nice to visit. Wow is this place massive though, I think we were the last stop on the route and it felt like we’d never arrive! I’m not sure how anyone manages to use the refillable mugs, I’m guessing there are quite a few refill stations dotted about and not just by the pools? I almost expired just crossing the bridge from the lobby!

It’s such a beautiful resort. We had a look around the lobby and shop, nipped into the grab & go (I like to know my snack options at all times) and wandered out to the Dig Site pool across the bridge.

We’d decided to eat at Siestas Cantina after reviewing the menus on MDE but were a little disappointed to find a completely different menu when we got there. Still, we persevered and ordered the Blackened Grouper Sandwich with fries and the Mahi Mahi Tacos with fries. I ordered a Fiesta Margarita and a Cancun Colada - the whole cocktail menu was available to us at the Oasis Bar at Poly but here they said it was only certain frozen cocktails under $10.50 which was a bit strange. They were both lovely and refreshing but I couldn’t finish either. Made my sore throat feel great though!

The food was actually really good here - I wouldn’t know where to find a fish taco in the UK but they’re just casually everywhere in the US! The blackened grouper was so tasty...I found the tacos a little spicy for me. I am a giant wuss when it comes to spice so probably not the best person to judge! Bear loved them and ate two of the three whilst I had most of the grouper.

We sat at the bar and watched some gameshows on the big TV before heading back to the buses.

We still had snack credits to use up before midnight so stopped by the grab & go for some treats…I got a twisted donut and Bear got a blueberry muffin (which he snaffled immediately and forgot to photograph…said it was really good if anyone cares!)

We also had another two refillable mugs to get since we were technically on a new dining plan so found a lovely American family who were staying for 5 days without a DP to gift them to. I think they might’ve come to regret accepting the offer as I could hear the late night sugar screeches from the little girl as we were leaving 😬 oops!

Once back at AK, we nipped into the shop to spend the remaining credits on yogurt parfaits, banana bread and ice cream for my sore tonsils!

Total Spent:
2 QS credits (0 remaining)
6 snacks (0 remaining)



Thursday

Late last night we spotted a reservation for Beach Club the next day so quickly called up member services and switched our first OKW night for Beach Club…we still have 3 nights at OKW to come so it was nice to have a little stop at Stormalong Bay too. MS were also kind enough to take out the leftover ‘holding’ points and return them to our use year for us to bank based on the hurricane policy which was still in force.

So this morning we were up bright and early to switch resorts. I’d used the last of the snack credits to buy a Banana Bread for breakfast after hearing people rave about it. I’m not a banana fan usually but this was yum, especially with some peanut butter!

Disney will transfer luggage and fridge items to your new resort for you but can’t guarantee they’ll arrive before 5pm. That was fine for us as we just packed up a small pool bag and headed over to AK to get the bus to BCV.

We arrived around 11am and checked in… our room was ready for us which was a lovely surprise. We asked for a fireworks view but the CM said it would be overlooking some construction work and she wouldn’t personally recommend it. We stuck with our pool view room and were so glad we did, it was beautiful.

We had stayed at BCV a few years ago and really hated it - the CM were rude, the room was a bit smelly, the pool was heaving and the lobby area/shop was manic. I’ve been continuously baffled by other Dibbers’ love for it since.

This time we have been completely converted - the CM were so lovely, the room itself was bright and airy and had a gorgeous view at sunset, the pool wasn’t as crazy as we remembered and the lobby was so peaceful we just sat in it for a while. It’s still a bit of a maze to get from BCV to the pool but other than that it was a perfect stay. Even more so when we discovered the special Joffrey’s Coffee on offer - Shakin Jamaican I think its called 🤤

We spent the whole day by the pool and it was amazing. I haven’t got many pictures I’m afraid but it’s definitely worth a stay here when its quiet.

And they have resident puddle ducks!

We decided to head offsite for tea as we’d picked up our car hire at the Swan & Dolphin (or as Bear calls it, the Swan and Carp…he has a very real problem with the depiction of the dolphin that’s clearly more of a fish and thinks Disney should punish the person responsible for a) building a hotel in the colours peach and green, and b) finishing it all off with a set of giant garden gnomes that look like they came from B&M) - we picked Millers again. I think Bear just needed to calm his nerves after looking at the giant dolphin fish all day from his pool lounger 😂

Starving and wasting away to practically nothing, we over ordered - a French Onion Soup to start and a Blackened Chicken and Shrimp Cobb Salad and Zinger Mountain Melt to share. The soup was to die for…Americans make the best French Onion ever. We ate all of the zingers and the salad but barely made a dint in the fries underneath.

Needing to waddle off some of our tea, we stopped off at Walmart to pick up some more lunch provisions and made a quick stop at the Lake Buena Vista outlets for a mooch. Bear found some trainers and I spotted a hoody in Nike that we plan to go back for after ‘thinking about it’ some more 🙄

We arrived back at BC around sunset and had this amazing view from the window. I don’t think I’ve ever seen colours like it, I promise there’s no filter or editing at all.

We popped back down to the pool for a few hours and watched Illuminations from the beach before heading back up to bed.

We’ll absolutely be back to the Beach Club soon!

Total Spent:
Millers - $38.24
Walmart - $47.47


Friday

Sad to be checking out today…but we’ve decided to make the most of Stormalong Bay and return for the day once we’ve moved our stuff over to our new home.

Breakfast was my usual bowl of fluorescence on the balcony.

Moving to Old Key West this morning for 3 nights, our first time seeing this resort so very excited!

We arrived around 11am and checked in, asking for a canal view if possible. They were repaving the carpark at blocks 45 & 46 so we took a studio in block 33 with the promise we could move to a canal view tomorrow if we wanted.

The grounds are so beautiful at OKW…we haven’t seen the main area yet as we’re saving that for our pool day tomorrow.

The room itself is a bit drab in comparison to AK and BC- I think we’ve been spoilt by the amazing rooms we’ve had so far. There was really no natural light coming in at all so it was very dingy and dark despite the pale mint walls. The beds looked comfy and the bathroom was lovely and bright but the rest was a bit…meh. No USB sockets either so I spent the best part of an hour hunting about for the apple plug and US adapter. The air was blue by the time I’d found everything.

Still, we enjoyed lunch on the balcony before heading back to BC for a day at Stormalong Bay. Bear had his Mickey Rice Krispie head from a few days ago - white chocolate base, peanut butter chips and white chocolate drizzle.

We were supposed to be at the opening night of Halloween Horror at Universal Studios but I was in agony with my back and I turn super crank when I get a fright so all in all, it wasn’t the best idea to visit for everyone’s safety. We decided to head to Disney Springs on the boat and grab some more sushi at Splitsville.

After a day in the pool, my back was feeling much better and my cold had really cleared up so I was feeling a bit more human and ready for a night in DS. We thought it would be packed since it was Friday night but there was hardly anyone about! Unfortunately, some demonic little brat had pulled the fire alarm at Splitsville and we arrived to an evacuation. It was all over in about 20 minutes and we sat outside at the bar and ordered our sushi. Bear had the Ninja Crunch and I had my fave Fantasy Roll.

Both were delicious as usual and were accompanied by someone on the guitar absolutely destroying the Eagles with his backing vocals 😂

After a quick look around the shops, we were unceremoniously booted out of Uni Qlo at 11pm on the dot and decided to head back to OKW by bus. The boat stops at 11 and I believe the walking path shuts at dusk. The bus arrived just as we did and we were soon back in our room at Turtle Pond.

Total Spent:
Splitsville - $42.15

[onion2803]

Originally Posted by jools1302

Oh no the dreaded holiday sore throat ... this gets me EVERY TIME! Really hope it clears up quickly! SO fun swimming in the rain... not so much when there's lightening though

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I’m convinced it was either the over-zealous aircon in AK or something I picked up at MNSSHP as I’d forgotten to pack my hand sanitizer 😷
Ahh swimming in that rain at night has been one of the highlights, it was so much fun we couldn’t stop laughing! x

Originally Posted by Wordsworth

My husband doesn’t drink much when we’re at the parks and I can’t believe it’s never occurred to me to order cocktails for him so I can drink them

Great report so far, thanks for sharing!

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I don’t seem to be able to finish two at the same time (my younger self is furious at the wasted alcohol &#128514 but I’m glad to be able to try out something adventurous! Thanks for reading along x

Originally Posted by Loobylou_82

Just caught up with your report. Hope your throat is better. Food looks good so far, except the nachos,they look pap. How many hotels are you doing ? You are very brave, i’m a heavy packer, if it says 23kilos then that’s what i’m Taking! Couldn’t cope with that many hotels with my luggage, i’d Never get to unpack properly.

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Ah it’s much better now thank you! Yeah those nachos 🤢 We’ll have done 10 hotels total by the time we’re finished! It’s actually been fab...it’s not something we’ll do every year but as we don’t have park tickets, it’s been really fun. I have a main suitcase that doesn’t seem to leave the car...I just keep grabbing a packing cube and my cabin case with all the essentials in.

I usually always bend the limits of luggage allowances, it’s why we fly with Virgin 😂

[Juliemack]

We like to hotel hop too although the most we've done over three weeks is 6. That sushi looks lovely, I've never quite found the right one but they both look so appetising!

[OB1LukeLucas]

Really enjoyed catching up with your last few days.